Our clothes have a harmful story behind them. Clothes are made by factories which are
polluting rivers and other bodies of water like the Aral Sea and Citarum river
in Indonesia.

Water and Pesticides

It takes about 2,700 litres to grow the cotton

for one t-shirt. Pesticides are used for killing other
life that threatens the farmer’s crops.

Landfill

When you discard your
clothes they go into landfill. This is
when lots of discarded clothes are left in one place developing the name
landfill. Landfills have the potential to create a number of issues. Waste is
confined to small piles so the volume does not get to high if it does then it
might explode. Some pipes have been
built to lower the risk of the waste exploding.

Dyes

It is
not rare in cotton and other natural fabrics including anything that has been
dyed or printed. Dyes are highly dangerous and may be found in many items of clothing. They are dangerous because they pollute our
environment. Coloured dyes are a major
problem due to the mixing of colours, even with naturally grown cotton. When
dyes are used and disposed of thety have harmful effects on the environment.
Manufactures are aware of these worries and are advancing in new methods.

Fast Fashion

Fast fashion is
creating a vile impact on our planet. When you buy your clothes you kill about
1 person, imagine if you were to buy the latest trends every week you would
kill about 52 people a year and 520 people a decade. When you rush though out
the shops don’t buy what looks good check the label.

Fashion destroys our world. It is the second most cause of pollution on the planet. These are the resources that make so much damage to our environment: Cotton, Pesticides, Toxic Chemicals, Rivers, Waste, Fast Fashion, Dyes and Polyester.

Cotton

People may think that there is nothing wrong with cotton. People may also like wearing clothes BUT people don’t know the damage they are doing to the environment. Most clothes are made with some fibres like polyester and cotton. Cotton needs lot of water to grow and polyester needs at the moment a declining amount of oil and gas.The main idea behind sustainable materials is that they are less damaging to the environment. Also cotton takes up to millions and gallons of water everyday. To make a single t-shirt, it can take up to 2,700 litres of water and add a pair of jeans it is 49 years of drinking water! As a result it nearly wiped out the whole of the Aral Sea which was once the size of England! Now its just a small lake in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan

Polluted river full of waste

Pesticides

Pesticides have been used for the last 4,500 years and have been deadly to the environment . They are used to make farmers products look better and keep organisms and bugs off the plants and food although they do not taste as nice and are unhealthy for humans. They are full of toxic chemicals.

Waste

A lot of clothes are put to waste in the UK, mainly because of fast fashion . Many garments are bought but not used or taken to landfill that basically means what high street brands are making is just going to waste . So what shops are getting money but all that’s happening is that the clothes are going to trash. 2.12 billion tonnes of waste gets wasted each year. 0.4 of food never gets eaten by humans without pesticides. Waste is in nearly all of the polluted rivers. For instance the Citarum river is full of waste.

Rivers and Factories

The Citarum river is being polluted by lots of big shops like ASOS, GAP, H&M and ZARA. Scientists have found led, heavy metals, mercury and even arsenic. Millions of people suffer from untreatable illnesses. Their parents buy gallons of fresh water for their children so they don’t suffer as much as them. The army is having to clean up the mess , people have been getting skin and neurological problems . A group of people are trying to stop the factories, but they just got denied so they blocked all the toxic pipes with concrete.

Dyes

Coloured dyes are still a problem even with organically grown cotton. Dyes are basically toxic chemicals, as a result it is very bad for the environment and it is a waste of money because many of the things are not sold and goes to waste.

Coloured dyes is a big problem

People who are trying to save the world

There are some people who are trying to stop this problem , take Stacey Dooley and Stella Mcartney . Stacey Dooley has made a very interesting documentary called Fashion’s Dirty Secrets and as for Stella Mcartney she is trying to find a eco-friendly way to make clothes . They are both good examples of people trying to save the world.

Fast Fashion

What is Fast Fashion? Fast Fashion is when you’ve got the latest trend even if you’ve got last weeks you can get this weeks trend at a low price. As a result you have so many clothes you don’t use them. This is what makes so much damage.

This is a picture of the Citarum river, it used to be clean until the cotton farms moved in and the Citarum river has a lot of pollutants in it. The Citarum river has over 200 chemicals running through it at this time.

This is picture of a typical cotton farm.

This cotton farm is draining the Aral sea. The Aral see was full in the 1960s, however the Government at the time decided to divert the two major rivers that fed the Aral sea, too grow more crops, including cotton.

This is world and you don’t want it to disappear.

This big round world holds lots of different life. The life is ours and do we want to risk it for all of it to be gone by growing cotton?If we keep buying clothes the world will look like mars.

We know fashion is clothes, but did you know fashion has a bigger cost?

The worlds most polluted river, the Aral Sea, our loss of water and damaged crops and animals, fashion is the cause of all of it. Read here for more information about how fashion is destroying our beautiful planet.

The Fast Fashion

Fast fashion is a major problem. After the new trend is over, the clothes get burned, if the clothes are lucky, they get donated. If we continue with this, our earth will end up with billions of unused fashion.

The Cotton

Lovely, lovely cotton.

Cotton is one of the biggest problems. It gets taken to the cotton farms, then it gets in the clothes. The horrifying truth is that most of it gets burned. Cotton also included child labour, where eleven children got murdered. Cotton also also wiped out most of the Aral Sea, which used to be the worlds fourth most largest lake in the world, know, a third out it remains!

The Aral sea, from then to know…

The River Citarum

Citizens, bathing in the Citarum.

The River Citarum is Indonesia’s most polluted waterway. Family members rely on the Citarum’s water to survive. This is bad, as the Citarum contains chemicals like arsenic, lead and mercury in it’s water. Mercury can damage the brain, lead can lower IQ levels (intelligence levels) and arsenic is poisonous. The citizens use the water for baths, drinking water and putting on their foods. The people of Indonesia need to help these poor people. The shocking truth is tat over 50 factories near the Citarum are using it at a sewer, dumping these chemicals and unused fashion in the waters.

The Pesticides

Pesticides are a big problem, especially since there are so many, like DDT, sulphur, algaecides and rotenone. Three more main pesticides are fungicides, which harms unwanted fungi, insecticides harms animals and herbicides, which harms unwanted weeds. The suffix: -cides originates from latin meaning: to kill. Farmers are spraying these pesticides on their field, harming animals and plants which were not meant to be harmed. If farmers do not take heed soon, it could wipe out their entire field, and cash.

The Water

Water may not seem like a problem, but is is. Almost two and a half years of drinking water is used for a single adult sized T-shirt, image all the billions of garments, we could spend at least 10 centuries worth of drinking water…

What we could do

Now you have learned about the Citarum River, the pesticides, cotton and the Aral Sea, you might be thinking what you could do to help the situation. Well, you could start by buying clothes that often, if you buy clothes regularly, try buying clothes once a week. Another thing you can do to help is buying 50% cotton clothes, instead of 100% clothes, or maybe not buy cotton clothes that often. Last but not least, you could think of your own ideas to help Fashion’s dangerous catastrophe.

The effects on the environment are catastrophic. Fashion that the factories produce put peoples lives at stake! Did you know, the cotton industries made a whole river dry up because they needed more land to plant cotton. During the process they drained the water, which in the end almost drained the whole Aral sea.

Most of the clothes that are made, come from poor or developing countries .

The name of the Aral sea ruffly translates to the sea of islands, referring to over 1,000 islands that are dotted over it’s waters. The Aral sea used to have 24 species of fish, but now it has no life at all.

Facts about cotton

A cotton farm.

Many cotton industries in places like Indonesia feed their polluted chemicals into lakes and rivers, that villagers use for their daily water. Many people get skin problems that come from the water, that the doctors cant treat. The people who live there refuse to wash their children in the polluted water. They buy a gallon of water every day to wash their children.

Fashion

Did you know, 1,800 liters of water go into one regular pair of jeans. That’s more water than it takes to make a ton of cement! In the United States, each person owns an average of 7 pairs of blue jeans. That’s one pair for everyday of the week! Men have been wearing shorts for decades, but women have only been able to wear them in public after World War 2.

Closet overflowing!

Crops

While fashion has been around, it has made a huge impact on the environment. Farmers have been using pesticides to kill the bugs on the plants which is deadly to workers. Some people are so fed up with the disgusting work conditions and little pay, that they even drink the chemicals just so they could die! Crops like Cotton are very misleading. Although cotton seems to be very organic, the amount of water and pesticides used is incredibly surprising!

Final words

Fashion has had a bad impacted on the environment but we hope we can change that round in the long run, just remember fashion isn’t all bad.

Fashion is one of the most polluting thing on earth . last year 1,130,000 tonnes of new clothing was purchest in the UK an increase of 200,000 tonnes since 2012.

COTTON

The cotton industry forces labour. As well as forcing labour ,the pesticides used are highly toxic. Pesticides can create acid rain that is poisonous to:

amphibians

fish

human health

small mammals

insects.

cotton growing in a field.

As well, cotton takes a lot of water to grow. The Aral sea has completely disappeared according to NASA. If you want to know more watch Stacey D Dooley’s documentary Fashion’s dirtiest secrets.

DYES

coloured dyes are toxic and a problem

dyed cloths.

Dyes cause a lot of problems in the environment. Manufacturers are aware of all the problems to do with dye. Organically coloured cotton is being developed to help solve this environmental problem of dye. Today, coloured cotton comes in shades of brown, reddish brown, green and yellow.furthermore, dyes are still a big problem and we need to solve them or the planet is gone.

THE CITARUM RIVER

Although it looks clean on the outside, it is not, so much so that the army has been called in to help.

The Citarum is the longest river in west Java. The real truth is that it is the most polluted river in the world. It has an important role in life of most people in west Java, 28,000,000 rely on the water from the Citarum. The water can cause neurological problems that are caused by polluting metals, lead, mercury and toxins.loads of toxic spills are released every day

So would you really risk earth for looking good?

fashion is the worlds fastest growing problem, nearly overtaking most other pollutants it has the title of the second biggest polluter in the world!

cotton production is a serious problem. The cotton is picked by poorly payed workers the worker risk their lives spraying pesticides on the cotton. cotton is the most unnatural crop

Indonesia is a big manufacturer for company’s like H&M and Next. But the factory’s are breaking the law.Every day the factory’s release hundreds of toxic spills are released in to the river. A testing of the water shows that the water contains heavy metals like Lead, arsenic and mercury, sadly many people rely on the water to drink even worse for some people it is their only source of water also by the time the water is out of the river it is hot bubbly and purple

When fashion is disposed of 15% of clothes are put to good use in Africa and poorer places the other 85% goes into landfill also only 10% of clothes actually get bought of the shop in a year the rest get burnt

The Environmental protection agency estimate that 15.1 million tonnes of textile waste went into landfill in 2016 also more than 26 billion pounds went into landfill in just the USA & Canada alone here are 6 reasons why you should throw less of your clothes away

1.Every time a few garments it costs your town or city money. 2. 95% of used fabric can be reused. 3. taking clothes to landfill is bad for the environment but if you take your clothes to donation centers it helps your local community and environment.

clothes banks are in most towns and villages

4. the apparent fashion industry is the second largest industry in the world after oil. 5. clothes,when put in landfill release many different poisonous chemicals in to the already polluted air.6. it takes more energy to make a pair of brand new pair of jeans than to leave all the electricity on all night and lights

landfill can poison many things buildings with lights on cause light pollution

chemical are a contributing factor of garment pollution because many clothes contain chemicals like Formaldehyde, carslic soda, sulfric acid and halogen all of these chemicals are toxic and poisonous.

colored dyes are still a problem because the disposal of these dyes can kill

Manufactures are aware of the problems of dies and are trying to invent solutions that are 100% natural

globalisation is another huge problem of fashions rampage. One design can be over in a week to a month .A lot of people are involved in making a thing that will only end up in landfill here are 3 reasons why globalisation is so bad 1. for example globalisation uses up rare resources quicker than than coal in china even though it has reson by 0.4-2.3